A structural, epistemic, and systems-level approach to understanding neurodivergence beyond pathology models.
“Neurodivergence is not a deficit within an individual — it is a pattern of meaning that becomes distorted or erased inside unjust systems.”
Critical Neurodivergent Studies draws from disability justice, systems theory, epistemic integrity, and lived experience frameworks to interpret how social, cultural, and institutional structures shape neurodivergent meaning.
This theory challenges deficit-based interpretations of neurodivergence, positioning cognitive variation as a legitimate epistemic stance rather than a medicalised anomaly. It provides analytical tools for understanding how institutions distort, erase, or appropriate neurodivergent meaning.
Advancing structural approaches to disability justice and systemic access.
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Explore Services →This theory explains how systems interpret, distort, or suppress neurodivergent knowledge — and why structural change, not individual adaptation, is essential for justice.
Reveals how institutions “read” neurodivergent behaviour and meaning — often through deficit-framed or non-neutral interpretive lenses.
Demonstrates why neurodivergent ways of knowing require protection from erasure, misinterpretation, and semantic distortion within systems.
Highlights how harm accumulates not from individual traits but from structural forces such as policy design, cultural norms, and interpretive bias.
Frames neurodivergent expression as a legitimate linguistic and epistemic system — not a deviation from a “normal” standard.
Critical Neurodivergent Studies reframes neurodivergence as a structural, relational, and epistemic pattern — not a medical problem to fix. By analysing systems of interpretation, semantic distortion, and institutional harm, this work provides a foundation for accessible design, justice-centred policymaking, and the protection of lived experience as legitimate knowledge.
Critical Neurodivergent Studies is an original theoretical contribution licensed for educational and advocacy purposes through The Index Line and Strategic Advocacy Australia.